February 21, 1999
Web posted at: 4:07 p.m. EST (2107 GMT)

In this story: 'Half a deal is no deal' NATO forces on alert RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Sunday she hopes rival Serbs and ethnic Albanians reach a Kosovo peace accord by a Tuesday deadline, though she warned that refusals by both sides have complicated the negotiations.

"It is my hope and desire that they hold to the Tuesday deadline, and I am hoping that they take it as a sign that they must finish their work," Albright said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition."

The talks were extended beyond the original Saturday deadline. The new deadline for an agreement is Tuesday at 3 p.m. Paris time (1400 GMT), with a threatened NATO bombardment of Serbia hanging over the negotiations.

Albright spent four hours in talks with both sides Sunday.

A proposed agreement under discussion at Rambouillet, outside Paris, would give Kosovo a degree of autonomy while keeping the province within Yugoslavia. It would also protect the rights of Serb minorities in Kosovo.

The major obstacles remain Yugoslavia's refusal to allow NATO troops into Kosovo to oversee the peace plan, and the independence movement among the province's Albanian majority.

But Albright reserved her harshest words for Yugoslavia's Serbian leaders.

"They are basically not engaging at all on a crucial portion of the agreement, the military portion," Albright said. "I have made it clear that half a deal is no deal."

"They are currently saying that they do not wish to engage in any discussion of the military annex, which has NATO forces there," she added. "There is no question that the basis of the deal is a NATO-led force."

U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin said the goal of Sunday's talks was "to push the Kosovo Albanians over the finish line."

"In order to move forward to military action, it needs to be clear that Serbs are to blame" if the talks break down, Rubin said.

Despite the deadlines, Albright said too much is at stake to stick too firmly to a timetable if progress is being made.

Listen as Albright discusses the difficulties of coming to an agreementAIFF or WAV (498 K/30 sec. audio)

"These are life and death decisions, very complicated for people who have not spent their lives being constitutional lawyers. And so we felt it was legitimate to extend the (Saturday) deadline," she said.

Reuters contributed to this report.